Abstract
Young people living in coastal and rural communities around the United Kingdom face significant barriers to education and employment, severely limiting their chance to succeed and achieve their aspirations. This paper asks how place-based collaborative design projects can play a role in helping young people planning for their future when living and working in rural and seaside locations. It presents a case study from ongoing research in this area where a co-design process brought together a seaside based creative business, local school pupils and design PhD students to consider their hometown to redesign aspects of a major local arts and culture festival. The paper shares details of how the approach brought benefits to all the groups involved. The process engaged local young people; contributed to the sustainability of the festival; connected the young people with a local business, helped develop skills and contributed to innovative placemaking in the town. This research has implications for researchers and designers who wish to understand how design can support transformative action around issues such as education, employment prospects and underserved communities facing economic decline. This paper aims to be and sets out to be an advocate for the potential of design in context relatively under-explored in design research.
Presenters
Laura WareingResearch Associate and PhD Researcher, ImaginationLancaster, Lancaster University, Lancashire, United Kingdom
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Young people, Communities, Employment, Economy, Co-design, Place, Inclusion, Transformation
